SpeedBall/Penance
SpeedBall Robbie Baldwin was an angst-ridden Springdale Connecticut high school student who grew up under the often smothering guidance of his parents. His father wanted him to go into law while his free-spirited mother hoped he would go into arts. After school, he interned at Hammond Labs. Robbie snuck in to watch an experiment that tapped an extra-dimensional energy source, and was accidentally irradiated by it when the energy went out of control. The energy gave him superpowers: Whenever Robbie was hit with an impact above a certain strength, he'd become surrounded by a protective kinetic energy field that manifested in the form of a more muscular body, a spandex costume, and floating 'bubbles' in the air around him. When he was in "Speedball mode," any impact against him caused him to bounce instead of being harmed. He could also harness this energy and direct it more forcefully, or alternately use it as a bubble/shield to protect others, catch others, and even stop moving objects, like bullets, in mid-air Penance The New Warriors attempted to apprehend a group of supervillains in Stamford, Connecticut for their television reality show. Nitro, one of the criminals, created an explosive blast that killed 612 civilians, including 60 children, as well as the New Warriors with the exception of Baldwin. This event triggered the push for superhero registration at the heart of the superhuman Civil War. Baldwin was presumed dead after the incident, but he was found alive after the blast launched him over 500 miles. Baldwin's kinetic field kept him alive, but it "burned out" as a result. After awakening from a coma, Baldwin was arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed in federal prison. After he discovered his powers were still functional, Baldwin was taken to the new penitentiary called Negative Zone Prison Alpha. Reed Richards, the facility's creator, offered Baldwin the chance to testify before the U.S. Congress. On the Capitol steps, Baldwin was shot by an assailant and taken away in an ambulance. Baldwin recovered from the wound, and Richards determined that Baldwin's powers were evolving. Baldwin thwarted an escape from the prison and said that he would comply with the Superhuman Registration Act Baldwin ordered a new suit of armor that featured 612 internal spikes that caused him constant pain, symbolic of the 612 deaths he felt responsible for. Sixty of these spikes actually broke his skin, these sixty spikes are symbolic of the sixty children that died in Nitro's explosion. He joined the newest incarnation of the Thunderbolts. While hunting down unregistered superhumans during Civil War, Penance was sent to capture his friend and former New Warriors teammate, Nova, who was visiting earth after the Annihilation War Powers Hyperkinetic Shockwave: After the assassination attempt by Mr. Stricker, Robbie's powers changed and are now fueled by pain. His armor channels the power into energy conduits via the interior lining's spikes. This shockwave can travel considerable distances, and destroy most objects in it's path and area of effect, finally hitting the target with a force to harm and kill a normal human with ease. it appears that the longer the shockwave has to fly to the target, the more power it leaves along the way. He can also use this power to focus the kinetic energy in certain body parts, like his hands, for super strong attacks. Kinetic Energy Field: Robbie Baldwin's exposure to energy from a dimension of kinetic energy gave him the superhuman ability to create a kinetic field of unknown energy around himself which absorbed all kinetic energy directed against him (what he originally called the "Speedball Effect.") This absorption could vary from resisting the effects of physical objects such as bricks and rocks to resisting that of energy and fire and even explosions. Within his kinetic field it was nearly impossible for him to be hurt, and he instead bounced harmlessly from object to object, with no loss or transference of momentum. Hindsight deduced that because Speedball taps into a dimension of kinetic energy that Speedball must be an embodiment of time and motion. Gamesmaster a being who is able to read the minds of almost every being on the planet is unable to read Robbie's mind when he is in Speedball form. When the Sphinx experimented on him it was shown that Robbie's Speedball body only appears human and can be stretched into a variety of shapes. Speedball also showed control over his own molecules when he reshaped his body to give himself another costume after everyone else on the team got new costumes. These powers appeared to have "burned out" when saving Robbie from Nitro's explosion, however, they had evolved into his Penance powers. Currently, this power (his power as Speedball) has shown to be returning to him, and he can use it again. When transformed into Speedball, he was covered with a blue-and-gold costume (originally a facsimile of the lab uniform he wore when exposed to the energy) and surrounded by a display of multi-colored bubbles. At first, Robbie would transform uncontrollably if hit with a slight force and bounce around uncontrollably, making him originally seen as a "joke" character. However, in his years as a member of the New Warriors, he developed considerably. He gained the ability to manipulate his kinetic field to extend out to either attack an enemy or block a projectile. He typically used the field to slam into his opponents, and the multi-colored light display could be used to distract opponents. After many years, Robbie learned to extend the kinetic field outward, pushing back everything in his immediate area or, by focusing more locally, delivering more powerful blows in hand-to-hand combat. His "bubbles" could also be contained in a telekinetic field and then launched as an intense attack. Later, Robbie would also discover that his entire body was in fact an aspect of the "kinetic dimension," and that each bubble represented a moment in time Equipment Penance wears a suit of armor constructed of super-hardened plastics, reinforced with certain alloys, with a sharp interior lining of spikes causing him constant pain. The metals act as non-resistant energy conduits; the larger spikes contain the main energy conduits. The suit contains spikes representing the 612 people who died in the Stamford explosion; the 60 larger spikes represent the 60 children who burned to death in the schoolyard. The spikes are hardened with carbonate steel